offbeat
Coca-Cola signage is running out of storage
BORK!BORK!BORK! Are you a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty person? Some distressed digital signage on the island of São Miguel in Portugal's Azores is running on empty, judging by today's entry into the files of signage silage.
Spotted by an eagle-eyed Register reader, a Coca-Cola display has clearly had too much of the carbonated beverage and urgently needs to free up some space, a feeling many an over-caffeinated techie will be familiar with after chugging one Diet Coke too many.
It's tricky to work out what operating system is running behind the scenes. Running Windows with 200 MB or so of disk space is only for the brave (or foolhardy), but we suspect this might be Ubuntu Unity warning onlookers that the volume is fit to burst. While there is an option to ignore the message (assuming the viewer can find somewhere to plug in a mouse or keyboard), doing so might be the computing equivalent of dropping some Mentos into a bottle of Coke and standing well back.
While a good old-fashioned poster would never show an error message, thus obscuring whatever message Coca-Cola is trying to convey via the medium of a bottle top, Ubuntu isn't a bad choice for digital signage. Assuming it is indeed the operating system running behind the scenes, security maintenance could continue well past the display's lifetime, and there are plenty of tools to deploy, provision, and manage the hardware.
All of which makes the pop-up a little incongruous. Somewhere, a distant dashboard is flashing red to indicate the signage storage is not what it might be. But on a well-managed system, surely the customer would never be aware of any issues. Kiosks and digital signs are about keeping their internals well tucked away from prying eyes after all.
Except here. A volume is getting dangerously full.
The same effect can be created by pouring a sachet of Pop Rocks/Space Dust* into one's mouth and chugging a glass of Coke. The result could be your very own storage error. Possibly through your nostrils. ®
*Also known as popping candy.